“This is not necessarily a home run situation."

An extensive piece was filed by Ron Green Jr. on the Pinehurst No. 2 redo, with some great quotes from the various parties involved. Some highlights, starting with this honest assessment from Bill Coore:

“This is not necessarily a home run situation,” Coore, a former Wake Forest golfer, said recently.

“You’re not necessarily going to come out of this where 100 percent of the people are going to say, ‘Oh that’s fabulous.’ There are going to be some people who say why and there will be other people who absolutely love it. It’s a daunting task.”

It’s also well underway.

When it’s complete, the goal is for Pinehurst No. 2 to look much as it did in the days in the 1940s when Ross was prowling the property, regularly tweaking his design. By the time the 2014 men’s and women’s U.S. Opens are played there, it will look dramatically different in places than it did in 1999 and 2005 when previous Opens were staged there.

“I think you’ll see a dramatic aesthetic difference in the 2014 Opens,” said Mike Davis, the USGA’s senior director for rules and competitions. “It’s going to put more guesswork in it. More shot-making will be put into it.

“It will bring back one of the all-time great courses. I don’t know if it will make it easier or harder. I don’t think we as the USGA care. If it’s slightly easier for the Open, who cares? We just want it back to what it can be.”